CURRENT MISSION

To prove that maturity can be just as weird as growing up...

ABOUT ME

"If we asked your best friends about you, what kinds of things would they say?"

"Half-deaf," one might quip. And, yes, I am half-deaf. The hearing aids compensate greatly, though not perfectly. "Music nerd," another might say. This is probably true, by most people's standards, but it's a relative distinction. "A half-deaf music nerd," someone would infer. Yes. And it goes on, but eventually one of them would say I'm a nice person... I hope.

PHILOSOPHY

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud; and it's fun, for a while." -- Bill Hicks

"How strange it is to be anything at all." -- Jeff Mangum

Interests

I'm a reader and a writer. I like new music, and I like learning new things. I drink modestly, but never alone. I like words and their meanings, the poetry of images, and the sludgy whisper of time to space as it crawls along. I like the quiet places of faith's perfection....

• writing
• poetry
• dancing
• walking
• partying
• drinking
• pub crawls
• trivia
• music
• hiking
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Favorite bands: Neutral Milk Hotel, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Dirty Projectors, The White Stripes... just to name a few.

Favorite books: Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), A Grief Observed (C.S. Lewis), Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger), and The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka). I like nonfiction as well, but let's not overdo this list....

Favorite movies: Citizen Kane, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Duck Soup, Dr. Strangelove, Pulp Fiction, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Unforgiven, The Third Man, Sunset Blvd., Pan's Labyrinth, Blazing Saddles, and more.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well, there was the moment I stood upon the ruinous remains of the Simatai portion of the Great Wall of China. I had slept little the night before, woken up to a frozen, smoky dawn to find the firecrackers of the previous night's celebration -- it was the New Year, you see -- littering the grey roads. The bus ride to the wall took two hours, and at the one bathroom along the way any water spilled to the ground turned to ice soon enough. The hike lasted five hours, up and down through the mountains, the surrounding trees and grasses bare and brown. The sun was high but unwarming. Steps were missing along the Wall, so the going was slow as our feet slowly found safe walking areas. My friends and I had a spicy dinner that night. Our tongues burned with the flavor, and our bodies burned with the effort of the day.

On a less splendid note, there was the night I first had a drink of alcohol and realized that I could still be myself. All my life I imagined that drinking turned one into someone else. And perhaps it does, for some. For me, however, I learned I am much the same, but with more confidence. The world opens our eyes in little ways, and in big ones. That was strangely illuminating.

Last, how 'bout the first time I won at Pub Trivia? Yes, why not?

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Northern Ireland, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, United States